The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1887-01-07
EheR emorrat-Sar
THE CURSE OF DEBT.
St. LOuis Republican,.

bed and rise mp to bis daily tot
with a heavy heart because he il
in debt. Take it for all ia all, deb
lies at the root of as much human
misery, and, perhaps, occasions a:
much crime as any other fault Ol
folly of our foolish and extremely
faulty ace Its Immediate cons.
quence is the humiliation oil the
debtor. As Solomon SAYS, 'stIe
borrower is sci want tn the lender"
and the Greek verse tells the same
truth in hardly differeLt words,
when II says that "debt makes tree
men slaves" Borrowing without
debt, however, from these, our
wise old friend, Punch, a in his
Letter Writer, "Ihe debtor, let him
hold up his head aud ruffle it as be
will, is the bOndman-the sert of
the creditor" 1t Is true, indeed,
that there are some to whom the
slavery of debt seems to be Il light
burden, or no burden at all, aud
who can gayly snap their fugers
at a creditor with some old saw in
Pistols vein, to the effect that
''base is the slave who pays.n
Much wit was expended by the
dramatists and eSsayists last cen
fury on the airy cheerfulnPss of
debtors; but it may be doubted
whether such "a cheerf1lneSs is ever
genuine or Pistols lot Il lot TO be
desired. Ella, who wrote most
'amusingly on the subject of Dor
rowers and lenders, knew the deep
humiliation which the borrower
bears. A friend to whom he once
lent ESQ seemed Immediately to
lose all the freedom of friendship
in his subsequent conversations
with his kindly creditor. Accord
ingly, Lamb took paius one day to
say as many things as possible
with which he knew his friend
did not agree, and, encounterine
no dissent, the dear old stammerer
cried out "C-c contradict me, you
villain, or p-p-pay me those fl fifty
poundsw The humiliation of the
sensitive and the degradation Of
the dull which debt brings have
often been shown by earnest writ
ers. Thackeray pictures it in
many distressing aud degrading
aspects. OF the Rev. Charles
Honeyman Colonel Newman says:
"Think of flying before a washer
woman, or humbllng yourself to a
OF eating a poor mans chi
bread )" and +. Bayham,
speaking OF the same habitual Dor.
rover, observes to Give Newcome;
Take warning by him, dear youth
by him and by me, if you like. ,
See meme, f. Bayham, descend. !
d from the ancient kings that |
.ong the Tuscan sceptre swayed, :
down II street to get out of \
a bOOt.shop, aud my colossal frame 4
if a chap puts his hand Oh {
ny shoulder, as you did, Penden {
rs, the oJner day in the Strand, :.
when ! thought a straw might have :
shocked me down." Hazlitt, in \
lis essay OH ''The Want of Money" +
peaks from sad experience when a
he eXclaims: ooh it is wTetched "
o have to confront a just aud oft n
epeated demand, and to be with
'ut the means to satisfy it, f" =
0 be placed in the power OF auoth. :
to be indebted TO his lenity, to .
tand convicted of having played :
be knave or the fool, and 10 have :
% way left to escape contempt but 3
y mourning pityp Poor Robin u
Burns in his early days declared
hat he "abhOrred as help the u
names which debt brings, and c,
bat this wholesome dread had u
lade him ga strict economist - but p
be wreck aud ruin of his better n
TO was slgnalized by the SORROW W
fact that he became at last a u
brOnic borrower of small sums u
ON reluctant lenders. Some of 81
lose who figure disreputably as VI
lsy and cOntented debtors are far u
SIS easy than they seem. Leigh q
unit, whom Dickens plllored for. III
FER in the character of Horace W
klmpole, was not in fact the light "a
creature who figures in III
Bleak House, but is said to have b,
cen $50 necessarily haunted by
Is obligations, and so over-anx-
us to fulfill all that was due from
I'm, that he often paralyzed his C.
I'm powers in the vain effort to
Get demands Which he ought not
haze incurred. Not the least hi
Use of DIR. Johnson's counsels to If
oswell was cOuched in these =,
ords: "Do not accuStom yourself a,
} consider debt only as an incOn- :,
enience; you will fnd it a calami- ~
~ Debt is indeed . calamity,
nd such a calamity, that Disraeli
said OF it that If youths could
ut know the wretchedness in store ~
II them when they accept a credit o.
which they are not entitled, they Il
rink from il with fear. "How u
lev would start Ia their career
ow they would tremble and clasp
Ieir hands in agony ut the preci. a
&C on which they are dispOrting p 3
be worst calamity of debt is that s
tends to break down the whole o
oral character. 1t is \ daily ex- n
er:ence that it saps the fOunda- d
ons of veracity. Sir Henry Tay- /
did not greatly exaggerlte, as d
very money collector can testify, il
hen he said: il